No More Learning

Heaven decrees their fall: the dread Powers are angry.

The warriors are all dead: they lie on the moor-field.
They issued but shall not enter: they went but shall not return.
The plains are flat and wide: the way home is long.

Their swords lie beside them: their black bows, in their hand.
Though their limbs were torn, their hearts could not be repressed.
They were more than brave: they were inspired with the spirit of
"Wu. "[2]
Steadfast to the end, they could not be daunted.
Their bodies were stricken, but their souls have taken Immortality--
Captains among the ghosts, heroes among the dead.

[2] _I. e. _, military genius.


THE MAN-WIND AND THE WOMAN-WIND

A "fu," or prose-poem, by Sung Yu (fourth century B. C. ), nephew of Ch'u
Yuan.
Hsiang, king of Ch'u, was feasting in the Orchid-tower Palace, with Sung
Yu and Ching Ch'ai to wait upon him. A gust of wind blew in and the king
bared his breast to meet it, saying: "How pleasant a thing is this wind
which I share with the common people. " Sung Yu answered: "This is the
Great King's wind. The common people cannot share it. " The king said:
"Wind is a spirit of Heaven and Earth. It comes wide spread and does not
choose between noble and base or between high and low. How can you say
'This is the king's wind'? " Sung answered: "I have heard it taught that
in the crooked lemon-tree birds make their nests and to empty spaces
winds fly. But the wind-spirit that comes to different things is not the
same. " The king said: "Where is the wind born? " and Sung answered: "The
wind is born in the ground. It rises in the extremities of the green
p'ing-flower. It pours into the river-valleys and rages at the mouth of
the pass. It follows the rolling flanks of Mount T'ai and dances beneath
the pine-trees and cypresses. In gusty bouts it whirls. It rushes in
fiery anger.